POEA imposes total ban on OFWs to Afghanistan

ABS-CBN News

MANILA – A total ban has been imposed on Filipino workers returning to Afghanistan, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) announced on Thursday.

The ban covers the processing and deployment of all Filipino workers returning to Afghanistan.

The POEA Board declared the ban after the Department of Foreign Affairs issued Alert level 3 or Voluntary Repatriation Phase for Afghanistan due to the heightened tension in that country following the conduct of the presidential elections last June 14, 2014.

The deployment ban on new hires for Afghanistan provided under Governing Board Resolution No. 8 issued on December 17, 2007 remains.

Based on the Commission on Overseas Filipinos’ 2012 Compendium of Statistics on International Migration, there are 3,601 permanent, temporary and irregular Filipino workers in Afghanistan.